# Ruby, irb and iconv with translit

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-irb-and-iconv-with-translit/87549>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [March 3, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-irb-and-iconv-with-translit/87549 "2007-03-03T18:36:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![stefans](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stefans](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stefans)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-irb-and-iconv-with-translit/87549/1 "2007-03-03T18:36:28Z")

</div>

Greetings.

I’ve been trying to find out why sorting a list of German names failed  
on  
both my local Gentoo box and my remote Debian server. Can somebody  
please  
explain the following in simple words?

$ ruby -v  
ruby 1.8.5 (2006-12-25 patchlevel 12) [x86\_64-linux]  
$ irb -v  
irb 0.9.5(05/04/13)

$ cat test.rb | irb

> > $KCODE=‘u’  
> > =\> “u”
> 
> > require “iconv”  
> > =\> true
> 
> > $conv = Iconv.new(“ASCII//TRANSLIT”, “UTF-8”)  
> > =\> #Iconv:0x2ace62d57090
> 
> > $arg = “ärger”  
> > =\> “ärger”
> 
> > $asc = $conv.iconv($arg)  
> > =\> “?rger”
> 
> > puts $asc.size  
> > 5

ok, translit fails. This might be a bug somewhere,  
but then why does the following work, where I called  
iconv interactively, but with the same string?

$ irb -r test.rb  
5

> > watch\_this = $conv.iconv($arg)  
> > =\> “aerger”
> 
> > watch\_this.size  
> > =\> 6

Thanks,  
s.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stefans](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stefans](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stefans)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-irb-and-iconv-with-translit/87549/2 "2007-03-03T18:50:29Z")

</div>

On Sat, 03 Mar 2007 18:33:18 +0100, Stefan S. wrote:

> =\> “?rger”  
> =\> “aerger”
> 
> > > watch\_this.size  
> > > =\> 6

Another facet of the problem:

$ irb -r test  
5  
$ irb

> > require “test”  
> > 6  
> > =\> true

I’d really like to know what irb does to make iconv behave…  
s.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stefans](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stefans](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stefans)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2007, 8:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-irb-and-iconv-with-translit/87549/3 "2007-03-03T20:50:43Z")

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On Sat, 03 Mar 2007 18:47:44 +0100, Stefan S. wrote:

> > I’ve been trying to find out why sorting a list of German names failed  
> > on both my local Gentoo box and my remote Debian server. Can somebody  
> > please explain the following in simple words?

The folks at #ruby-de helped me out with some brain waves and the  
problem originates with locale settings. To wit:

$ echo Ärger | LC\_CTYPE=de iconv -f utf8 -t ascii//translit  
?rger  
$ echo Ärger | LC\_CTYPE=de\_DE iconv -f utf8 -t ascii//translit  
AErger

But while you can get the iconv tool to behave by setting LC\_CTYPE,  
there’s no such luck with ruby:

$ LC\_CTYPE=C ruby test.rb  
“?rger”  
$ LC\_CTYPE=de\_DE ruby test.rb  
“?rger”

For the record, test.rb (saved as utf8) looks like:

$KCODE=‘u’  
require “iconv”  
$conv = Iconv.new(“ASCII//TRANSLIT”, “UTF-8”)  
p($conv.iconv(“Ärger”))

s.